After blazing onto the Paris fashion scene for SS15 with a collection featuring thigh-skimming PVC boots and oversized tailoring, it soon became clear that emerging label Vetements wouldn’t stay underground for long. Less than two years later head designer Demna Gvasalia is making waves as artistic director of Balenciaga, and Vetements is selling out in stockists worldwide – to the point you can barely move at a fashion show without spotting one of their SS16 Titanic hoodies.

After shows in a sex club and a Chinese restaurant, the label that’s on everyone’s lips took their gang of street cast models to a Parisian church for AW16, showing a collection that featured interenet-ripped slogans (“You Fuck’n Asshole”, “Justin4Ever”, “Sexual Fantasies”) and twisted takes on uniforms. School girl outfits, S&M leather and heavy metal band merch all were appropriated and recontextualised, as backstage Gvasalia spoke of the “dark mood” he and his collaborators wanted to project. 

On hand to capture the crowds outside the show was photographer Yu Fujiwara, the Kobe-born, London-based photographer whose fashion week fascination sees him travel to document the characters and moments outside shows. He turned his camera both to the cast of models waiting to take their turns on the runway, and the guests arriving to pray at the church of Vetements – complete with red rose invites, latex boots and, of course, the brand’s own clothes on their backs.

@8and2